The project covers the creek’s five miles within Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, plus another two miles upstream to Pacific Park Drive. The project’s primary purpose is to restore the creek bed to a more natural profile. To that end, several changes in infrastructure are called for in the project area.

In particular, in the segment within the park in which the channel is deeply eroded, the plan calls for filling the channel bottom and lowering its sides to restore the floodplain and its functions. This will allow healthy riparian habitat to be restored along what now is a barren, vertical-sided, mile-plus-long, 25-foot deep gully. Such work will need to be done with heavy machinery, making it probably the most controversial part of the project.

2. A plan to restore the 7-acre estuary at the mouth of Aliso Creek has been proposed by the Laguna Ocean Foundation. The plan would remove most of the parking lot that is now on the inland side of Coast Highway at Aliso Beach, and the channelization that was done long ago. That will allow restoration and enlargement of the wetlands, and their aboriginal environmental functioning. The Foundation’s website has a thorough discussion of the project’s purpose and goals: https://www.lagunaoceanfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Aliso_Creek_Estuary_Restoration_Public_Meeting.pdf.

OCCNPS supports the principle of restoring the creek to a more natural, functioning habitat. We are still studying these proposals to see if they are likely to fulfill that principle.

The above two projects are separated by the golf course, now known as “The Ranch,” that has long existed in Aliso Canyon. It is an about 1-mile stretch of private land between the two project areas, which are on public land.

CHINO-PUENTE HILLS: Two lawsuits in which CNPS has been a co-litigant have recently been decided in “our side’s” favor!